Louelle Denor is a feminist who also feels like it’s about time women weren’t been shamed online for having a period.
Realistically, it’s something most women have to deal with every month, but that hasn’t stopped a wave of controversy this year when Instagram started removing images of women menstruating or when Kiran Ganghi decided to ‘free-bleed’ during the London marathon.
Louelle said she was motivated to post an image of her menstrual cup, and her fingers covered in blood, after hearing reports that Instagram was shutting down accounts that begun censoring the material.
Captioning the shot, Louelle writes:
“It’s come to my attention that women are having their accounts banned for showing menstrual blood (and no nudity). This is very seriously f**ked up. If this was a picture of blood from a finger laceration, there’d be no issue. Yes, this blood is from my#vagina . It happens every month. The thing I’m holding in my hand is a#softcup #menstrualcup and it’s awesome but messy to remove.#periodblood #menstrualblood#iamafeminist #femenism #feminist#equality #menstruation #blood#bloodyfingers #periodshame#havingmyperiod’
The image was met with series of death and rape threats, which Louelle later screengrabbed to give an idea of the harassment women face for breaking a taboo: ‘This is what happens when you post a picture of #blood and say that it’s from your #vagina and it gets regrammed. @__emicasz__ says that#feminists these days are so f**king stupid. @martinghalle wants to #killpeople like me. @imthehitlerofmemessays that #feminazis should have#semen sprayed in their [email protected] suggests that#feminists should be #burnedalive#burned. The two of them decide that, really, #jetfuel should be used. [email protected] says I should #killmyself #commitsuicide#suicide. All of that over a picture of blood? #overreacting? #boredHttp://instagram.com/p/6ykYMTxmRX/ And I guess I should thank@sendmenudesorillkillyourfamily. Thanks, bro! #feminism #feminist#periodblood #periodshaming#menstrualblood #menstruation#misogyny #womenhating #sexism#blood #shame #threats #hate#hatecrime #period #mensrights’
While we get it’s not maybe the most pleasant image you’ll scroll through on your Instagram feed, it’s definitely not something that deserves a backlash or criticism.
It’s Louelle’s body and her own social media account.
